Marconi Stadium is a

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

stadium A stadium ( : stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand o ...

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. It is the home ground for

Marconi Stallions Marconi Stallions Football Club is an Australian semi-professional soccer club based in Fairfield, Sydney, New South Wales. The club has been crowned Australian champion four times. The Stallions are the soccer team of Club Marconi, a social ...

, as well as regularly hosting matches for the

Western Sydney Wanderers FC Western Sydney Wanderers Football Club (colloquially known as Western Sydney, or simply as Wanderers) is an Australian professional soccer club based in the Western Sydney region of Sydney, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premie ...

National Youth League and W-League teams.

Marconi Stallions

Although a soccer pitch had existed on the site since the start of the soccer club in the 1960s, Marconi Stadium itself was built in 1972 with a capacity of 11,500 and used for

matches within the NSW State League soccer pyramid. In 1977 the team joined the newly formed NSL and played in that competition until it ended in 2004 and the team re-joined the NSW State system. The stadium currently hosts Marconi games in the

NSW Premier League The National Premier Leagues NSW is a semi-professional soccer competition in New South Wales, Australia. The competition is conducted by Football NSW, the organising body in New South Wales (the other being the National Premier Leagues Norther ...

. Marconi Stadium hosted the 2006 NSW Premier League final between

Sydney United Sydney United 58 Football Club is a semi-professional soccer club and current NSW NPL Champions based in Edensor Park, Sydney, New South Wales Australia. The club was formed as Sydney Croatia in 1958, by Croatian Australians in the area, but ...

and

Blacktown City Blacktown City Council is a local government area in Western Sydney, situated on the Cumberland Plain, approximately west of the Sydney central business district, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Established in 1906 as the Blackt ...

During the peak of the club success in the late 1980s to early 1990s the stadium earned the nickname "The Palace", being set alongside Club Marconi, the large licensed venue which generated significant financial support for the soccer club which helped them acquire a large number of talented players & staff. In November 2006, Berti Mariani ran for election to the board, on a platform of Marconi Stallions making a bid to join the

A-League A-League Men (known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons) is the highest-level professional men's soccer league in Australia and New Zealand. At the top of the Australian league system, it is the country's premier men's competiti ...

, and rebuilding Marconi Stadium into suitable venue. After the end of the NSL and the failure of Marconi to enter the new national competition the

, the full capacity of the stadium was no longer needed. The Eastern stand in particular fell into disuse and was eventually declared unsafe due to a shifting foundation. By 2018 the seating had been removed, the foundation repaired, a raised structure built containing a box for commentary or camera operators, with the rest of the former grandstand area being converted into a basic grassy hill.

Other soccer usage

The venue was used as a training camp for

as part of their preparation for their

2010 FIFA World Cup , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...

qualification campaign. In 2007, the stadium hosted a match in which

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

legend

Gianfranco Zola Gianfranco Zola (; born 5 July 1966) is an Italian football manager and former footballer who played predominantly as a forward. He was most recently the assistant manager of Chelsea. He spent the first decade of his playing career playing in ...

made a guest appearance in a game between APIA Leichhardt Tigers and the Marconi Stallions. The ground record crowd for Marconi Stadium was set in 1993 when 14,220 fans attended to see the Australian under-20s take on the Brazil under-20s side in a warm up game for the

1993 FIFA World Youth Championship The 1993 FIFA World Youth Championship, known as the 1993 FIFA/Coca-Cola World Youth Championship for sponsorship purposes, was the 9th edition FIFA World Youth Championship. U20 Brazil defeated Ghana, 2–1 for its third title. It took place ac ...

held in Australia later that year. The stadium also hosts play-offs & grand finals for various youth & amateur competitions including the Churches Football Association of Sydney, as well as one-off charity & special events.

Western Sydney Wanderers

With the introduction of the

into the

, Club Marconi and the Wanderers began an association that has seen matches for the

Women's, Youth and NPL sides played at Marconi Stadium. The Marconi social club has also hosted Wanderers supporters viewing important away games & hosted club supporter forums. On Saturday 27 September 2014, a W-League Sydney Derby match between the Western Sydney Wanderers and

Sydney FC Sydney Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Sydney, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier men's competition, A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL). The club was fo ...

resulted in a record stand alone W-League regular season crowd of 3,084 to watch Sydney FC win the match 2–0. In the 2018 season of the

FFA Cup The Australia Cup, formerly known as the FFA Cup until the 2021 season, is the national football knockout cup competition in Australia. This annual competition is organised by Football Australia, formerly known as Football Federation Australia ...

the Western Sydney Wanderers were drawn to play an away game against

Bonnyrigg White Eagles Bonnyrigg White Eagles FC is an Australian semi-professional soccer club based in Bonnyrigg, Sydney, New South Wales, currently playing in the NSW League One. The club was founded in 1968 as Avala Sports Club and took its current name in 1992. H ...

. Due to a poor surface and a general lack of facilities to host the game at the Bonnyrigg stadium, the fixture was moved to Marconi Stadium and played 29 August 2018, the Wanderers winning 2–1 with a crowd of 5,137.

Rugby League

In 1996, the stadium hosted a

Rugby league sevens Rugby league sevens (or simply sevens) is a seven-a-side derivative of rugby league football, which is usually a thirteen-a-side sport. The game is substantially the same as full rugby league, with some rule changes and shorter games. Sevens is u ...

match between

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

. In October 2009, the stadium hosted the rugby league Mediterranean Shield, involving Australian local players split into 4 'national' teams based on Portuguese, Maltese, Italian and Greek heritage, with Greece winning the final 34–14 against Italy.

References

Rugby league stadiums in Australia Soccer venues in Sydney Sports venues in Sydney 1972 establishments in Australia Sports venues completed in 1972 Marconi Stallions FC A-League Women stadiums {{NewSouthWales-struct-stub